Hurricane Milton rips off Rays’ Tropicana Field roof. It was built to withstand 115-mph winds
Tropicana Field lost most of its roof Wednesday night as Hurricane Milton came and brought winds up to 120 mph to parts of Florida.
The St. Petersburg, Fla., stadium is the home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Its dome roof — which was constructed of large, triangular panels made of fiberglass and coated with Teflon — was largely shredded, with some sections missing entirely, exposing the inside of the only Major League Baseball stadium with a roof that is not retractable.
It was not immediately clear if there was significant damage inside the building.
The Rays said only essential personnel were inside the ballpark, and all of them were safe.
Search and rescue teams fan across Florida after Hurricane Milton strikes with storm surges up to 10 feet and 120-mph winds and pummels communities with deadly tornadoes.
“We are fortunate and grateful that no one was hurt by the damage to our ballpark last night,” the Rays said in a statement Thursday. “Over the coming days and weeks, we expect to be able to assess the true condition of Tropicana Field. In the meantime, we are working with law enforcement to secure the building.”
Earlier this week, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said the stadium would be used as “a 10,000-person base camp at Tropicana Field to support ongoing debris operations and post-landfall responders.” Rows of cots had been set up inside the ballpark, but all workers and equipment were removed after it was learned the roof might not stay intact under the force of Milton’s winds.
“As it became clear that there was going to be something of that magnitude that was going to be within the distance, they redeployed them out of Tropicana,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Thursday. “There were no state assets that were in Tropicana Field.”
According to the Rays’ 2024 media guide, the stadium’s roof was designed to withstand winds up to 115 mph.
The Rays finished the 2024 season last month with an 80-82 record. The team announced plans last year to build a new $1.3-billion stadium adjacent to the 34-year-old Tropicana Field, with hopes of moving there by the 2028 season.
Hurricane Milton brought powerful winds, a storm surge and flooding to much of Florida after making landfall along the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm.
Video out of Tampa on Wednesday night showed flooding on the field at the open-roof Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NCAA football program the University of South Florida Bulls. The Buccaneers left Tuesday for their game in New Orleans on Sunday.
Earlier this week, South Florida postponed its scheduled home game against Memphis from Friday night to Saturday afternoon. On Thursday, the American Athletic Conference announced the game’s location had been changed to Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
The conference said in a statement: “The decision to move the game from Raymond James Stadium was made in consultation with local law enforcement in the interest of public safety and with respect for the response and recovery efforts underway in the Tampa Bay area in addition to logistical challenges related to the storm that affected both schools.
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